Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson)  are hit men who have been shipped off to Bruges (its in Belgium) to lie low, after Ray's last job has gone horribly wrong. Ray, who is haunted by his accidental murder of a small child, hates hiding out in the untouched medieval city, while Ken indulges in its fairytale beauty. Both are curious as to why they were sent to Bruges, of all places, theorising that maybe they're here to do a job for their boss, Harry (Ralph Feinnes).

It's an interesting  tale of honour among thieves (or in this case assassins). The characters are all anti-heroes of a kind, but rather than making them look good by comparing them to even more evil people, as is usually done, we get to see their noble and human facets to help us empathise with them. There are lines even hit men won't even cross, having their own sense of what constitutes honour, evil and redemption.  It all sounds very dark, profound and tragic, but there's a lot of laughs in there too and it makes a terrific black comedy as well. On more than one occasion I was reminded of 'Snatch', which similarly crosses genre boundaries. More than once I laughed out loud. More than once I had 'something in my eye'.

Colin Farrell is a great choice for the lead role, if only because he really knows how work those tortured puppy dog eyes; enough to let us feel sorry for the murderer of a priest and a child. The characters are all multi-faceted and interesting, from Chloe (Clémence Poésy), Ray's drug dealing potential love interest, to the embittered American dwarf, Jimmy (Prentice Jordan). This is very important for such a character-driven plot and the roles have all been cast well.

One of my favourite movies for the year, In Bruges gets a 5 out of 5 for me.